My Motorcycle Injuries

  Today was a big day for me. Seven years ago I was given a very large amount of blood during my time in the hospital after the motorcycle accident. It was given to me for several days. I’ve been trying to donate blood for years now because I feel a strong sense of appreciation for the donations made by others that benefited me seven years ago. Today was my fourth attempt to donate blood since then, and it would have been my last attempt if I had been unsuccessful. I spoke about this once before on this blog (here) . In past attempts I’ve been turned down for low blood flow, thin veins, and a low iron level. I last attempted to donate this past November 29 th on the anniversary of the accident. It was a little disheartening when I was told that my iron level was too low to donate blood. I’ve been taking iron pills for the past 2 ½ months in an attempt to raise my iron to an acceptable level. When my iron level was first tested today it registered at 11.9, which is short of the...

I’ve been pretty much tired since the accident seven years ago. Sleep deprivation and physical “whatever” has me tired all of the time. I haven’t slept in any way that can be considered as normal since my stay in the hospital so long ago. I slept like clockwork before the accident but now nothing about my sleep pattern is regular or even gratifying. I’m thinking of getting one of those tranquilizer rifles with the darts that can put down a lion. My wife will need to practice her aim. My body continues to function pretty well, all things considered, but my energy levels have never been the same since the injuries from the accident. I don’t really know what it is about my body that is doing this. Oddly, the fatigue occurs in different levels of intensity. I know a guy who placed things in a better perspective for me a few days ago. He said that a car is never the same after an accident. You can get it repaired, but there’s always a noise or a shake or a grind that remains and it serves...

I'm finishing off the last of my medical appointmets in a couple of weeks. I go through several of them at the start of every year, and I've had nothing but good news thus far. My A1C is at 5.6 (prediabetes begins at 5.7 😎). My CT scan showed that there is no movement involved with the stent in my aorta, and all of my bloodwork results came back squeaky clean. So yeah, my body's doing great. Except...I pinched something in my lower back that I think relates to the sciatic nerve. It's at the top of the leg that I injured in the accident, and I can't help but to feel that it's related to the way in which I must compromise the use of that side of my leg and hip in everyhthing that I do. Sciatica is totally painful, but it does go away in time. I've had it for a while, but I really aggravated it on Saturday afternoon while lifting a heavy box. Today is Wednesday, and the pain is significantly less than it was this weekend. I'm pretty certain that the pain w...